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Changing up without the Clutch

827 views 9 replies 9 participants last post by  CapitalSon 
#1 ·
Hello All,

Remembering my dad telling me it was possible to shift up gears without a clutch from his early (1930's) driving experience I gave it a try from fourth to fifth. Where I usually pull in the clutch, I just rolled off the throttle a little and pressed up on the selector and 'snick' in to 5th no problem and no clutch. I have tried 3rd to 4th also at moderate speeds - that's a little tougher to get but it can work. Am I damaging anything by going up gears 3rd to 4th to 5th in this way? Interested to hear from the panel...

Capital Son
 
#3 ·
I do that from time to time, sometime because I'm lazy and sometime for fun. Sometime when in a hurry merge with traffic i'll run up to 5 to 6000 RPM and do it really quick for fun in all gears. It actually works just as well or better at higher RPM's. That's the way air shifts work on drag bikes, the ignition is momentarily (very quickly) killed the instant the shift lever is pushed to the next gear. With up shifts the RPM's have to drop slightly and remove the load on the drive train. Down shifts, as @BonnieJon says requires more coordination and more likely to damage something. I'v never done it enough to get good at it.
 
#7 ·
You will only damage the gears if you miss the shift and it grinds, so be ready with the clutch lever.

I do clutchless up shifts on all my bikes, all the time - sometimes using the clutch if I'm not feeling it - 40K on the bonnie, 80K on the 1100G only 7K on the FZ09.
Sometimes I do the 1-2 shift clutchless too, but more often than not I do use the clutch for that one.
 
#10 ·
Thanks to everyone for their comments.

I plan to use this technique from second gear upwards. Less wear and tear on the clutch cable also :)
 
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